Microsoft Surface 2 Linux

[Brian]

What works when you install Ubuntu?
Can it run Debian no issues? How about fedora?
Does the multi-touch input work? How about the puck and the pen?
How unstable is Linux on the surface studio?
Were you able to dual boot or do a fresh full install of linux?
Did anything change with the UEFI or EFI ?

When I was doing some research about a Surface Pro with Linux I ran across the Linux Kernel for Surface Devices. They list some support for the Studio, some compatibility may vary depending on which version of the Studio you have. Check out their compatibility matrix on their GitHub.

On linux, support is hit or miss. Most of the hardware features work, but the touchscreen and stylus take turns misbehaving. On my SP6 the stylus works pretty well with the patched kernel and driver, but the touch-cover reeks all sorts of havoc.

Not really large, but maybe the Lenovo m15t Travel display? I have one, it has a pen and touch. But it needs USB-C with DP-alt for output and touch. - might be a option for portables only, this way.
Reply with your distro, displaymanager and display system (wayland, x11) of choice and I can check it out.

I paired my pen to check for a low battery, and it reported 71%.
But I experience the same issues whether or not the pen is paired to my machine. Does the controller still have a way to talk to the pen without BLE?

Hello,
I am new to CL. I recently got a surface to toy with and the touchscreen does not seem to be working.
A bit of research showed that the touchscreen is done by Intel. How can I get the touchscreen working in ClearLinux?

@puneetse It is this one Surface Pro (2017) - Wikipedia
Everything works fine for me except the touchscreen (I did not know Intel does touchscreens?!) and a lot links to GitHub - linux-surface/linux-surface: Linux Kernel for Surface Devices

I guess it boils down to which component is the culprit and whether someone will post a fix on GitHub, looking at other previous surface models it seems that the problem with this hardware is not new, it needs some kind of patched kernel. Literally searching 2 min on Google -surface/linux-surface/wiki/Installation-and-Setup

I planned on immediately switching to Mate with this, but slowed my roll long enough to run Mate live. When I did I found out that the touchscreen on the surface doesn't work at all. I found lots of stuff on the intertubes about ubuntu kernal and touchscreen stuff but I'm not sure if that translates directly to Mate which is the distro I want to use.
Such as this page. It says Ubuntu but how do I make it to Mate instead?

SOOOOOO
Can I fix the touchscreen somehow inside of Mate?? I'm linux geeky but kernal stuff is out of my bailiwick. Everything else seems to work while running live, but I've absolutly got to figure out how to get the touchscreen to work or the purchase of this surface was moot and I'll be forced to run windows.

I found lots of stuff on the intertubes about ubuntu kernal and touchscreen stuff but I'm not sure if that translates directly to Mate which is the distro I want to use.
Such as this page. It says Ubuntu but how do I make it to Mate instead?

Since, for this project, the kernel, the assorted tools and the installation instructions seem to be desktop agnostic (*) , it shouldn't matter at all which Ubuntu flavor you install. As far as I can tell, you could use this instructions with either Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu-MATE, Xubuntu, Lubuntu or whatever floats your boat. As long as it is a *buntu.

According to the instructions (specifically the second link you posted), it roughly comes down to one thing: Install your Ubuntu flavor first, add the linux-surface repository and then install the custom kernel and touchscreen drivers .

(*) Touchscreen gestures (touch scroll, pinch zoom etc) are only supported on the standard Ubuntu and Kubuntu as well (because Wayland) and only on supported apps.
For all other desktops: you still have the regular touch controls that emulate everything that you can do with the mouse, so yes, go for it.

While there is a plethora of Linux distributions, most of us end up choosing only one as their main daily driver. Personally, I have been working on Debian most of my UNIX/Linux life. After a little bit of Unix and SuSE Linux, I started my Debian journey when I had to set up servers for some of the projects I was working on. Later, Ubuntu became my go-to desktop distro for software development.

I hadn't planned to turn this into a blog post, but after a request on Twitter, here's my write-up of what I did - or remember doing - to set up my Surface Pro 4 (i7, 256GB SSD, and 16GB RAM) with Fedora 32 and Windows 10.

In order to make this setup work smoothly, make sure that Windows' BitLocker is turned off. This is crucial in avoiding a situation where the BitLocker Recovery screen would otherwise pop up every time you boot Windows.

Further, remember to back up your BitLocker Recovery Key when you enable BitLocker at a later stage (after Fedora is installed). I highly recommend binding your Microsoft account to your Windows login, because you will be provided with an option to back up your BitLocker key to your Microsoft account, and it only works if you use your Microsoft account to log in to Windows.

Once backed up, you can then access the key at any time at It's really practical for when you occasionally make changes to the secure boot setup (due to kernel upgrades, boot sequence changes, and so on).

If you forget this step, you will have to 'fix' SecureBoot/BitLocker by rebooting Windows after the installation process is done. There, disable and re-enable BitLocker again. For obvious reasons, it is better to disable BitLocker before installing Fedora or any other Linux distro.

Some blogs suggest turning off SecureBoot for this procedure. From my experience, this is not necessary, as long as you turn off BitLocker before you install Fedora. You may at a later stage be required to enter the BitLocker key should you make subsequent changes to UEFI or install a new kernel, but those times of entering the recovery key are one-offs.

The linux-surface kernel installation instructions mention that you can get either the touchscreen or the surface pen to work (with libwacom-surface). This was something that really irritated me after installing the kernel. So keep in mind that the surface pen is the default enabled choice, and you can have only one of the two working at a time.

Your USB Flash Drives should have at least 8GB each. If you need to buy some, I'd recommend buying a SanDisk Cruzer 32GB USB 2.0 drive. They're AUD $7.88 at OfficeWorks, only $2 more than the 16GB version. And they're available in different colors.

For Fedora, you can use Fedora Media Writer, or you can just download the Fedora ISO file and use Rufus to create the bootable device. I was using the latter. There are plenty of instructions for either of the two, including YouTube videos.

If you intend to get rid of the Windows recovery partition and/or do a fresh Windows install, get another USB drive with at least 8GB. Then pop over to Microsoft's Windows 10 ISO Download Page. Use the Windows Media Creation Tool to create the drive.

When I attempted the dual boot install the first time and wanted to shrink the windows partition for that purpose, I noticed that I could not shrink all available space, but only about 70GB of my 256GB SSD. The system files had fragmented too much over time. More about potential issues with shrinking volumes in Windows can be found here.

In addition, the recovery partition was a thorn in my eye because I simply wanted that space dedicated to Fedora, so I ended up performing a fresh install with the Windows Media Creation Tool and getting rid of the recovery partition. Armed with a Windows installation flash drive I can always just re-install when needed.

Alternatively, choose to create a single partition to install into, and shrink the Windows partition after the fresh install. With the partition being brand new, you should not run into any issues shrinking it.

Before you consider installing Fedora, I recommend booting into the live distro from USB. Try a few things, get familiar with the package manager (dnf), and perform a system upgrade. This was my approach and after experimenting with it for a while and installing the most important tools into the live distro, I was convinced and chose to install it.

Another aspect to consider is Fedora's release schedule. While it is my first Fedora installation, the more bleeding-edge approach to packages makes a lot of sense to me. You should consider your own experience with Linux before you choose Fedora over Ubuntu, Mint, or any other distro. Just trying the live distros prior to installing any of them permanently is probably the best advice to give here.

Further, the plain and bare GNOME just appeals to me. I use the Super key to search-and-run any software, or to bring up the terminal. I don't need a UI, and when I do, that's for the settings. After a few days working on Fedora 32 I have to say that I absolutely love having zero desktop icons. On Windows, they're mostly covered by the windows I open, and even the smallest dock or task bar takes away valuable screen real estate.

The above issues can be fixed with the linux-surface kernel installation. Remember that you will have to choose between the pen (enabled by default) and the touchscreen after the linux-surface kernel is installed.

Now I thought it was time to reboot. Indeed, the new kernel was set as the default option in GRUB2. Selecting it, however, I ran into two errors: Invalid signature and You need to load the kernel first.

Given the output in the previous step saying that It [the certificate] will now be automatically enrolled, I was surprised to see the Invalid signature message. Clearly, something was wrong with SecureBoot not being able to validate the kernel entry because of a missing certificate.

You can create your own certificate (see instructions for the JakeDay kernel, for example). More simply though, just use the one created in the previous steps. While it wasn't enrolled successfully, it was still created under /usr/share/surface-secureboot/surface.cer, so just go with it if you like.

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